From March 26-28, 2024, the Northern Academy at UC Davis Human Services hosted hundreds of child welfare and probation professionals for the CQI Statewide Conference for Child Welfare and Probation in Sacramento. Sponsored by the California Department of Social Services, the annual in-person event explored how we can use continuous quality improvement (CQI) systems to paint a holistic picture of the people that these programs are meant to serve.
UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education – Human Services is pleased to announce that Michell Franklin, M.A., has accepted the position of Custom Training and Services (CTS) program director. Franklin will hold direct management oversight of the CTS program, including open enrollment courses and training contracts with a variety of county, state and nonprofit human services organizations throughout California.
UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) is pleased to announce Alison Book has formally been appointed as director of CPE’s Human Services division. Book replaces Susan Brooks, who recently retired as director and chair after a 35-year career. Book now serves in a dual role which includes continued oversight of the Northern Academy (one of California’s five regional training academies for child welfare professionals).
On March 23-24, 2022, UC Davis Human Services hosted the 5th annual CQI Statewide Conference for Child Welfare and Probation: A Pathway to Partnerships. On the opening day, keynote speakers Gregory Rose and Marcela Ruiz from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) highlighted how the pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is crucial to building lasting partnerships with children, families and stakeholders in their safety and stability.
In memory of one of California's outstanding social workers, Sarah Duncan, Human Services at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education is seeking your assistance in recognizing and honoring Northern California child welfare social workers who reflect passion, skill and tireless commitment to working to improve outcomes for children and families. This is an excellent opportunity to focus on and to celebrate the hard work that goes into this vital profession, and to cherish those who have made it their life's work to improve the lives of others.
The Human Services division at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education is ready and available to assist you and your county with the California CalWORKs Outcomes and Accountability Review (Cal-OAR) process. Cal-OAR facilitates continuous improvement of county CalWORKs programs by collecting, analyzing and disseminating outcomes and best practices. We have supported more than 160 County Self-Assessment processes over nearly 20 years, and our outstanding team is ready to use this knowledge and expertise to help your county in Cal-OAR process implementation.
The Northern Academy now provides comprehensive CANS and CFT practice and implementation support to counties—for free! Supported by our contract with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), we are available to meet our county partners wherever they are at in their CANS and CFT implementation and practice journey.
According to UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education–Human Services instructor May Orr, supervisors are the most critical factor in the transfer of learning for the staff and teams they lead. Beginning this fall, UC Davis Human Services is rolling out a new tool to help its training participants transfer what they’ve learned in class into practice at their organizations. To support the goal of increasing learning and skill development, each course offered through a county contract will now include a Supervisor Transfer of Learning (TOL) Tip Sheet.
Leading the workforce back to the workplace is a monumental leadership task. COVID-19 has created, and will continue to present, remarkable challenges. Responsibilities of keeping staff physically safe while also attending to psychological and social issues triggered by this pandemic are novel and complex.
On June 8, clinical and organizational psychologist Beth Cohen presented a follow-up webinar on this topic to human services professionals across California.
Small counties face unique challenges when implementing new mandates or practices in child welfare, including limited staff, funding and other resources. Implementation science tells us that successful implementation requires attention to executive (leadership level), cross-system and day-to-day functions—and leaders in small agencies are frequently, and sometimes solely, responsible for attending to all of these.
In 2019, as part of the Northern Academy's CQI Thought Takeaways video series, Jami Ledoux from Casey Family Programs talked about implementing CQI by transforming the culture that informs the focus within that system. This article is adapted from her presentation, which is available here.
